Skirrl had previously been used by Doctor Hamilton in an experimental
study of reactive tendencies. He proved so remarkably inefficient in the
work that Doctor Hamilton was led to characterize him as feeble-minded,
and to recommend him to me for further study because of his mental
peculiarities. With me he was from the first frank, aggressive, and
inclined to be savage. It was soon possible for me to go into the large
cage, Z, with him and allow him to take food from my hand. He was
without fear of the experimental apparatus and it proved relatively easy
to accustom him to the routine of the experiment. Throughout the work he
was rather slow, inattentive, and erratic.
Beginning on April 7, I sought to acquaint him with the multiple-choice
apparatus by allowing him to make trips through the several boxes, with
the reward of food each time. Thus, for example, with the entrance and
exit doors of box 7 raised, the monkey was allowed to pass into the
reaction-compartment E and thence through box 7 to the food cup. As soon
as he had finished eating, he was called back to D by the experimenter
and, after a few seconds, allowed, similarly, to make a trip by way of
one of the other boxes. By reason of this preliminary training he soon
came to seek eagerly for the reward of food.
On April 10 the apparatus was painted white in order to increase the
lightness and thus render it easier for the experimenter to observe the
animal's movements, and when on April 12 Skirrl was again introduced to
it for further preliminary training, he utterly refused to enter the
boxes, giving every indication of extreme fear of the white floors and
even of the sides of the boxes. Finally, the attempts to induce him to
enter the boxes had to be given up, and he was returned to his cage
unfed. The following day I was equally unsuccessful in either driving or
tempting him with food into the apparatus. But on April 14 he was so
hungry that he was finally lured in by the use of food. He cautiously
approached the boxes and attempted to climb through on the sides instead
of walking on the floor. It was perfectly evident that he had an
instinctive or an acquired fear of the white surfaces. As the matter was
of prime importance for the success of my work, I inquired of Doctor
Hamilton, and of the men in charge of the cages, for any incident which
might account for this peculiar behavior, and I learned that some three
months earlier, while the animal cages were being whitewashed, Skirrl
had jumped at one of the laborers who was applying a brush to the
framework of one of the cages and had shaken some lime into his eyes. He
was greatly frightened and enraged. Evidently he experienced extreme
discomfort, if not acute pain, and there resulted an association with
whiteness which was quite sufficient to cause him to avoid the freshly
painted apparatus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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